At first glance it seems obvious that someone like me would end up doing something like this. I visited over 20 countries before I was 25 years old & two of my biggest passions are language learning & helping people. I was raised in a Christian homeschooling home where biographies of people like Hudson Taylor & Amy Carmichael were read almost daily. In many ways it seems inevitable for me to go overseas.
On the other hand, for most of my life I had no serious desire to be sent anywhere, &--even if I was going to go--I would never have expected to end up in South East Asia: I do not like temperatures over 70°F & I'm not a fan of humidity unless I'm near enough to the ocean to spend most of my day swimming in actual water instead of the air. But I did think maybe it would be neat to go on a short trip somewhere, or work as an engineer somewhere like Russia or Central Asia.
Therefore, when my campus minister said "anyone who even vaguely thought missions might possibly be for them in some capacity" should attend the Urbana Student Missions conference in the fall of 2015, I went. That caused me to go to the next thing...& the next thing...& so on & so forth for the next 5 years. I got on the GoCorps mailing list at that conference & they reached out to me shortly before my graduation with this opportunity.
Although it's not a missions organization, it is certainly a perfect fit for someone like me to use my oddly-specific set of skills & life experience to be part of God's healing restoration in every aspect of life in South East Asia. I was reluctant to commit to this part of the world at first, but the sending organization seemed so undeniably divinely tailored to my specific passions & the specific way God has equipped me to make a difference in the world, that I decided to say yes to the ride. It has already it has been amazing almost beyond imagining, & I haven't even left the United States yet; I can't wait to see what happens over the next two years!